[IC] Happiness

[OwO]

As you awaken, you notice everything around you is amiss. The air is cool. Not cold, but uncomfortable to be in. Despite this, the air is humid enough to also be uncomfortable. The only thing around you was trash and concrete. The room you were in, if it could even be called a room, was the size of a small house. Trash littered its corners. Mostly empty cans, broken wood, and other useless items. The frigid bed that you have been sleeping in for some unknown amount of time wasn't comfortable in the slightest. The rough concrete made it difficult to lie on. Not to mention, there were no pillows, nor a blanket to keep you warm at night. On your wrist was a bandage; it was also where your body had hurt the most. Unless you slept in a bad position, however.

Despite this, in the middle of the room was a box. The only light in the room was shining upon it. There was nothing appearing to be special on the box. It was simply corrugated cardboard. It was the only thing in the room that your adjusting eyes could be making out.

---

@drewccapp Room 16
As you awoke, you noticed that your box was damaged, as if packed in a hurry. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Then, underneath the food and water, there was a single cloth covering something. Within the cloth was a box cutter beginning to rust away.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice and it had a red star hanging from it. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Borrow something from someone~ ヽ(≧ω≦)ﾉ make sure you ask~

---

@RedXCross Room 7
As you awoke, you noticed that your box was damaged, as if packed in a hurry. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Then, underneath the food and water, there was a single cloth covering something. Within the cloth was a revolver. Though, firing this revolver would be a different story. There was no ammunition. None at all. Four out of the six chambers had been welded shut. It was as if you were given a dangerous looking paperweight.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice and it had half of a plastic heart hanging from it. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Find your soulmate! ( ≧▽≦)ﾉｼ kya~ how cute!

---

@tatszico Room 10
As you awoke, you noticed that box. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Under the food was a plastic box. Upon opening the second box, there was a syringe along with seven tiny bottles. Four logos were on the top of the tiny jars. Two of them were skulls with crossed bones, two were of a caduceus rod, two were of multiple Zs and one had the words 'You Monster" written upon it.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice, along with a skull hanging from one of the corners. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Make a friend! (;￣▽￣) maybe a little bit too easy~

---

@Jinxer Room 2
As you awoke, you noticed that box. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Under the food was a small plastic bag. Within the bag were two small bullets. The bullets would be useful, but there were nothing to fire them with.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice, along with half of a plastic heart hanging from the corner. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Find your soulmate! ( ≧▽≦)ﾉｼ kya~ how cute!

---

@Darkwolfsoul010 Room 9
As you awoke, you noticed that box. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Under the supplies, a single mattock lay there. Its weight would be the most dangerous part about it.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice, along with a bauble of a queen. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Help someone! ( ^ω^)ﾉ how nice~

Despite the nonthreatening tone of the text, something was amiss in your room. You could smell something; the putrid sweetness of outside. It would be a familiar scent, but to what? It smelled as if something was horribly wrong.

---

@KahleenCuthald Room 14
As you awoke, you noticed that your box was damaged, as if packed in a hurry. Within your box were two cans of soup. Both of them seemed to be in healthy order; no bursting at the seams of the can. Besides the cans of soup, there lay a single litre of water. It was in a large plastic bottle and there were no impurities within the water. Then, underneath the food and water, there was a single cloth covering something. Within the cloth was a dull hatchet. A useful tool, but not quite effective.

Finally, there was the phone. The smooth appearance of it was nice and it had a figure of a sad man hanging from it. It turned itself on and gave a quick chime, as if getting a text message. The screen was filled with words.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Oh... Whats this? Your birthday happened while you were sleeping~ Happy Birthday~! ☆ミヾ(∇≦((ヾ(≧∇≦)〃))≧∇)ノ彡☆ Do whatever you want just for today~ Go to a dropoff to collect your present~

---

@teaistasty A Toilet
As you awaken, however, you were stuck on the toilet. Not doing private things, however. Blood was all around the stall. Whether it was yours or another person's was unknown. Everything smelled extremely salty, as if the sea was piped into this room. Instead of having a box containing necessary supplies, outside of the stall was bloody corpse with their head was mashed against a wall and a metal pipe lodged into their spine. They were clutching tightly to what little supplies they had when they died. Within were 3 litres of water, 2 cans of soup, some unopened chocolate, and a bloody phone with the bauble of a zero. You couldn't remember anything in the past week.

As you got near the phone, a familiar chime sounded.

...

Nothing appeared on the phone. The chime sounded again.

...

Nothing. Finally, the third and final chime sounded.

Welcome back. Make this unhappy man beside you happy.

---

Current Map

[Benzaiten]

I am confused. I don't know what happened. I don't know why it happend. To my own displeasure, my first first solid thoughts were maybe Dad was right. He couldn't be right with all his world end theories!

I rub my head and feel a sharp pain on my wrist. I eye a bandage around it and quickly try to remember if I hurt myself. But my memories are gone for an uncertain time. Maybe a day, maybe a week? Depends on how long I've been out on this uncomfortable bed. My back hurts, so I stretch it into all directions.

I take the phone in one hand and the hatchet in the other and think about all of this.

It's a situation that I can't control. That's sure. A look around the room gives me the option of either staying here or leaving through the only exit there is, the door.

I figure I'd look at the text again closely. First thing I find strange is my birthday. Was this a joke or did I really sleep all the weeks until my birthday?! However, I try to make out what those weird signs mean. But in the end I just decide it must be a birthday kinda thing. Do whatever you want. If that's the case then I decide to get the hell outta here.

I am very sure that I somehow am being watched. I just have this feeling. My mind tries to process it all and stay clear. But slowly I seem to get how dangerous the situation is.

Panic rises inside of me, my heart beat quickens to an unbelievable pace until I can hear nothing but my own heart beat. I breathe in and out, trying to calm myself down. This situation is crazy. It seems like someone has kidnapped me! But this is not possible. I think about what they could want from me, but I only get to the point where I believe that this psychopath just likes to play games.

The best thing I can do is investigate a way to survive this. I sit down on the floor and check my body. Besides the wrist bandage I seem unharmed. I need to collect as many information as possible. So I start to slowly undo the bandage to see what kind of wound I am suffering from.

[Darkwolfsoul010]

Irina was rubbing her nose. Something smelled rancid, but she couldn’t figure out what. The stench was making her sinus’s itch, the feeling one gets right before sneezing. Her eyes watered, and with a rough palm she tried to clear her blurred vision. Irina could feel the goosebumps on her skin. Sitting on the cold cement, and the overall temperature of the room did not help. She worried that she would get sick. Irina sniffed, and tried her hardest not to cry. Mother always hated cry-babies.

Irina had stared at the phone for a few minutes already. She was in a slight state of shock. The room had no windows, no clocks, she couldn’t tell what day it was or the time. Much less where she was. This had to be some kind of stupid joke, she thought to herself. Right? The pain in her wrist told her otherwise.

She inspected the cans of soup; Chicken Noodle and Cream of Mushroom. Irina made a face at the cream of mushroom, but didn’t say anything before putting both back in the box. Her mouth was dry, but she didn’t want to waste any water. She would drink later.
Wasting no time, Irina picked up the mattock. It was heavy, but not really something she wasn’t used to. In fact, she remembered having one of these on the farm with her grandparents. She smiled slightly at the memory, but it soon turned bitter. She had to get out of here. Using the mattock, she started sifting through the piles to trashed objects, hoping to find something of value. Irina coughed, the smell was starting to give her a headache.

After digging through all the separate piles, Irina put whatever she found(if anything) into the box with her things. Swinging the mattock over her shoulder, Irina approached the door. She pressed an ear up against it, and tried the handle. She didn’t notice that her hands were shaking.

[drewccapp]

Room 16

Aedin stared at the ceiling, while the hardness of the bed wasn't something he was unfamiliar with; the fact that he had a roof over his head was. Where was he? He wasn't in chains, so none of the gangs that he had intruded on had caught him. The air was too cool to be San Fransisco. He spent a few minutes laying there staring at the bandages on his arm. When did this happen?

He sighed heavily. "Another day in paradise." He steadily stood up and looked around the room. While it was a slight improvement from his hiding place on the streets the litter on the floor was nothing new to his eyes. His attention quickly fell to the box being shone in the light. He looked inside and saw the cans and water and nodded. He was about to look away when he saw there was a cloth underneath and he picked up the cans and pulled the cloth out revealing the rusting box cutter underneath and a phone.

"What the heck is going on?" By now Aedin was really confused and disturbed by his situation. He then saw the phone light up and ping a message. Aedin picked it up and read it.

Hiya! How are ya? Ill be your guide! Nice to meetcha! I see youre new here so lets start with an ez mission! Hmm hmmm hmmmm... Found one. Borrow something from someone~ ヽ(≧ω≦)ﾉ make sure you ask~

Aedin blinked a few times. So, he wasn't alone here? Pretty quick to gather that. "What is this?" Slowly he started writing a message back. He was unused to cell phones except for the occasional theft and sale of the things. Although with GPS tracking lately, that became very risky to do. He never really used the things though, although he had spent plenty of time watching people use them.

Wher am I? Wht d u want wit me? R u with the King Street Wolves? I kno they do stuf lik this.

He awkwardly pressed the send button and frowned. He didn't care much for phones and didn't trust the things. He also felt that getting rid of this one would be costly. Aedin felt a bit hungry and thirsty, so he took a swig of water and tore open a can of Beef Stew and basically drank it down chomping down on bit and pieces of it as needed. He then waited and watched the phone for a response.

[tatszico]

"What...what the fuck?" Justin stared blankly at the contents of the box, his hands gripping on the edges so hard that his knuckles turned white. But after awhile one of his wrists started to hurt, and that was when he noticed that it was bandaged. He blinked several times, slowly letting go of the box and turning his hand over, and rotated it gingerly. He winced at how stiff it was, and released an anxious, shaky sigh.

How did he get hurt? Hell, more importantly, where in the world is he and how did he get here? It had only been mere minutes after he had woken up in a panicked stupor, flinging himself out of bed in a stance that was ready to defend himself. But he had woken up to an eerie silence, and the only thing in the room with him was a lonely box that sat in the middle of the room. Unfortunately, after looking through the contents, he was just as confused as ever, if not more.

Slowly, Justin got up and took in a deep breath. When his nerves calmed from a violent trembling to a nervous shake, he slowly spun on his heels and did a 360 degree turn to get his bearings. Of course, he had no fucking clue where he was. But it seemed like he was trapped in a room, surrounded by grim concrete that seemed to have a claustrophobic effect on him even though it was quite spacious. It was also quite dirty, and despite being scared out of his mind, he found a way to be grateful that he had awoken on a relatively...'cleaner' mattress. The room was pretty much bare, save for a door that stood at the opposite side of the wall.

When there was not much else to see around dull room, Justin began to inspect himself instead. First, he patted himself down to check if there were any other injuries that were not accounted for. Secondly, he focused on the clothing that he was wearing. Thankfully, he recognized the attire that he was wearing: a simple navy-blue long-sleeve, charcoal-colored jeans, and white sneakers. Thank God he was not molested when he was knocked out and ended up here. Or if he did...well, he didn't feel particularly violated so he hoped it to be a positive indicator that he wasn't. When everything checked out, he turned his attention to the box on the floor.

Justin hesitated for a moment, but groaned at his own cowardice before clenching his fist and knelt before the strange package. Looking through it once more, he made note of what was inside the box:

Two canned soups, heavy with unspoiled broth, it seemed. A litre of water, tightly sealed an unopened.

Well, this was a good sign - at least he wouldn't have to starve anytime soon. Luckily, he did not feel hungry nor thirsty, and he knew his body to a point where he was certain he could ration the food to last him at least a full day or two. But it was the second, small box that unnerved him the most: a box with a syringe, followed by seven small jars of what seemed to be drugs that could fill it up. Even to someone without extensive medical knowledge like his, they could guess the contents of the jars just by looking at the symbols etched on them: two poisons, two medicines, two soporific drugs and...and the last one, he had know clue. "You Monster"? The hell if he knew what that meant. Lips pursed and jaws clenched, he rummaged the contents of his box one more time before sealing it close. With a sigh he stood back up with the small, peculiar phone in his hand.

He looked at the text once more, then at the skull charm that hung from it. Pocketing it, Justin proceeded towards the door, box tucked firmly under an arm. When he tried the doorknob, he found it to be unlocked - so with determination, he swung it forward with force. He gulped as he peered out:

A door was a few feet in front of him. His room seemed have have been situated in a hallway, across from another room.

Before he could even react to his new surrounding, Kevin could hear a sound coming from down the hallway to his right - was that another door opening? Kevin gulped, his body beginning to shake again as fear crept up his spine and finally he realized how fucked up his situation was. Where in the hell was he? What the fuck was going on? Kevin closed his eyes, groaned to himself, and steeled his body into rigidness.

There was no use standing here and pissing his pants. After all, he had a "mission" to accomplish. Make a friend, huh? Let's damn well hope that the noise he heard was from a kind stranger such as he. He walked out into the hallway, closed the door behind him, and made his way right.

(Justin is heading towards Room 9.)

[Teaistasty]

The first thing Tim was aware of was a dull ache in his wrist. Then it was the smell. A salty, putrid smell. It didn't smell anything like his heavily Windexed room at home, and so Tim shut his eyes tighter, hoping to escape this dream for another one soon. But instead of slipping back into unconsciousness, the dream continued to flesh itself out as Tim became aware of a stiffness in his joints and the distinct feeling of a toilet seat under his ass. The ache in his wrist turned into a dull pounding, then into a throbbing pain, strong enough to make Tim force his eyes open.
Tim looked down at his hands and shoes, at first not recognizing them in this new context. Yes, those were his knobby, boney pale hands in his lap and, yes those were his plain black work shoes, slightly worn, planted in the ground. But there were no accounting papers in his hands, no office rug under his feet. Instead, he was in a toilet stall. A curiously red, smelly toilet stall. How funny to fall asleep here. Maybe not a story to share on a first date with someone, but it was more interesting then his normal routine.
Tim shifted to stand up and some of the red flaked off of the toilet seat. Tim leaned forward, inspecting the paint. It was uneven and spattered about, somewhat like a Pollock painting. Tim scratched at a bit of it on the stall wall, sniffed it. What strange smelling paint, he thought.
Not paint, replied some working part of his brain. The ache at his wrist continued, but suddenly Tim was more concerned about getting home for a shower. That was when he opened the stall door and noticed the body. What an intricate dummy of a corpse stabbed by a pipe, thought Tim and not a dummy, replied the voice in Tim's head.
There was a phone on the corpse, and as Tim slowly stepped out of the bathroom stall, it rang. Twice. What a familiar sound, thought Tim, though he wasn't sure why. On the third ring, a text message appeared, "Welcome back. Make this unhappy man beside you happy."
Welcome back. Welcome back? Forget whatever the message said. He could figure that out later. Tim stood up, the phone still in his hand and pressed his weight against the bathroom exit.

[RedXCross]

Austin’s arm was numb. As he started to wake, Austin noticed he was sleeping right on top of it. Pins and needles buzzed up his arm as the blurry grey background started to come back into focus. His whole body felt stiff and uncomfortable as he rolled into a sitting position on the dense mattress.

Just as he was regaining feeling in the one arm, sharp pain spiked up the other as his hand brushed the rough bandage on the other.

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath. His hand danced delicately over the edge of it as he finally realized what was going on.
Grey walls and trashed surroundings hit him like a sledgehammer as he shook his head. His eyes went shut.

Three… Two… One…

Okay, he thought to himself, Let’s recap. Physical… Two? Three? No, Two. It wasn’t too bad, just shocking. Mentally… Mentally he was fine. A little confused and disoriented, but that led more into his emotional score – about a three a four.

Things were fine right now. It could always get worse… but he needed to keep track of himself. Austin hadn’t done all that research into human psychology just to panic the first time he was thrown into an unusual situation. Handle what you could for now, then worry about what’s out of your control later.

He did a scan of the room, brushing messy hair out of his face before his eyes fell to the beat-up cardboard box in the centre of the room. It was frayed at the edges and dented in several places. There was even packing tape peeled at the edges as though it hadn’t been applied properly. Slowly, he stood up and walked at a slow gait in an attempt to get the blood flowing again through his stiff muscles. Hands found their way to the edges of the box before they tore at the cardboard to reveal the contents inside.

The soup got stacked to the side of the box, with the bottle of water next. At least survival wasn’t impossible. He didn’t feel like he needed it right now. Instead, his eyes went to the phone plastered to the next of the cardboard box.
Austin hesitated as it started to buzz. Carefully he removed it from the box, staring at the friendly text waiting for him.

Find your soulmate? Okay, Austin could admit he wasn’t doing to well in the love department recently, but this was pushing it to ridiculous lengths.

“Okay, is this some kind of prank?” He scoffed, staring around the edges of the room, “Alright guys, I know I haven’t been the best at hanging out recently, but this is a little absurd isn’t it?”

He expected some kind of response, yet nothing came. Austin scrambled for his own phone in his pocket, finding nothing it its stead.
All he had was this strange little phone with a small half-heart bauble and the strange smiley speaking message.

Just as he was about to step away, he turned back to the box, seeing there was still something hidden underneath a layer of thin fabric. He pulled it away.

His reaction ended with his back banging into the metal front of the ugly bed.

His eyes stared wide at the revolver. It stared back with a menacing gleam.

Who planted a gun in here? Where the hell did it come from. He’d never seen a gun before, but he approached with morbid curiosity.

A few fingers picked it up by the handle. A hand moved towards the trigger, but then it led down to the chambers of the revolver.

It was empty. Heck, most of them you couldn’t even load a bullet. Breath let out of his chest like a heavy weight release. He put the gun in the box, back with the soup and water as he pushed the cardboard box back under the bed. He might need it later, but it was too much to carry it around.

The phone took its normal spot in his back pocket as he looked up towards the door.

His only lead was finding his “soulmate”, whatever that meant. So carefully he opened the door and shut it behind him. He noticed a faded yellow “10” painted on the door. Another door was right across from him, and he heard loud footsteps moving off in the other direction. There wouldn’t be more leads until he could find more people, so he followed after the faceless feet.

“Hey,” he shouted, “Does anybody know what the hell is going on?”

[Jinxer]

Rhiannon huddled in the corner of the room, dimly aware that she was almost certainly standing in whatever was causing the room to smell. The room was cold and she wasn't wearing a jumper; just a thin shirt but at least it had long sleeves so she might survive a couple of minutes longer in whatever horror film she had apparently been dropped into. From the moment she had woken up her dormant anxiety and fears burst to the fore and she retreated to a corner to have a minor panic attack, her brain too overloaded to process everything around her at once.

Is this them getting back at me? No, they have no money left and the others are on jail. Karma? Don't be stupid Rhian, you've not earned any bad karma. Well, no less than the next person.

The box in the centre of the room both intrigued and terrified her, the only light in the room eerily highlighting it so that she had difficult focusing on anything else. Still, there wasn't that much else to try and analyse besides the mangy bed and the various smatterings of rubbish around the room. The box would give her a clue as to why she was here and so she crept towards it, expecting a trap or anything else her over-clocked imagination could create.

"Still, can't be worse than it is now." She opened the box and peered inside. The soup and the water inside were welcome sights but gave no clue to the bigger question of why she was here. "Looks like they expect me to feed myself, no guard to bring meals I guess." Rhian found that talking herself through her thoughts helped keep the anxiety at bay; there was no around so she felt no embarrassment and the one-sided conversation.

The bullets in the bag sent her blood-pressure sky-rocketing for a brief moment but the absence of a weapon calmed her down. They weren't expecting her to commit suicide or anything like that, apparently. Whoever 'they' were, that was. Then something buzzed in the box and she found a phone underneath the plastic bag containing the bullets. It had buzzed once. "A text?"

She turned the phone screen on and saw the notification icon: one message. The contents disturbed her but nothing more than anything in this place.

"Find your soulmate? So there's others here then... what the fuck?" She raised the phone to throw it but held back at the last moment, a voice of caution telling her that this phone was probably her ticket out of here one way or another. "Fine, let's play this game." She muttered as she slid the phone into her back pocket, the half plastic heart hanging out slightly. The soup she stowed under the bed but it was so woefully thin that it was clearly visible even from the door.

"Well, here goes." Rhian pushed the door open, water bottle clutched in her left hand and the right unconsciously curled into a fist as she stepped into the barren hallway. She considered calling out but thought better of it, there was no telling who else was here with her, and so started walking cautiously down the hall to the left of her door.

[OwO]

@KahleenCuthald Room 14
As you unravel the bandage around your wrist, you notice that the wound that you thought was inflicted was much more than what was actually inflicted upon you. Three holes. The two smaller ones had already begun to scab over while the larger of the three had just begun to heal. The wounds were reminiscent of a hospital IV.

Upon looking closer, however, a faint inking of a stamp lay under the three wounds. III; the symbol was about to fade, but that is what your eyes could make out of it. It would probably be a good idea to explore the outside.

---

@Darkwolfsoul010 Outside Room 9
As you sifted through the piles of trash in your room, you found two things that seemed to be of importance. An ordinary latchkey on a thin rope connected to a cassette tape by a thin red string. Though, the cassette would be a larger mystery of the two. In this day and age, who had a cassette deck?

As you attempted to open the door, it dragged itself open. The putrid scent rushed you rapidly. On the other side of the hall, which was more akin to a road, there was a body laying against the door on the other side. The body was most definitely a woman. Their hair drooped over their face. It didn't appear as though they were dead; however, that was only until you looked down. Coming from a tear in their shirt, intestines fell out onto their legs. Blood was everywhere; it was hard to discern the qualities of the body because of it. But, those intestines were rather large. It appeared the smell had been coming from that.

---

@drewccapp Room 16
As you sent the text message, small words appeared under your message. Message could not send. Not connected to network. The app then seized, and the screen turned black. After a brief period, the phone displayed the home screen again. Then, another message came through.

You dont need to text me~ (;￣▽￣) i can hear and see just fine

---

@Teaistasty Outside of the Washroom
As you push on the washroom door, it opened rather easily. The smell of salt wafted outside of the room and it became slightly more bearable. On the opposite side of the wall, you notice that there was another door. On the wall, however, was a small dumbwaiter that was closed by a thin layer of metal sheeting inside of the wall. The only thing left was the dark hallway. Light seemed to sparse, but there was a path out from the washroom.

---

@Jinxer Outside Room 2 (and the hallway to the left)
As you walk outside of your room, you decided to walk to the left. Light was scarce. You could make out a door on the other side of the hall from your room. As you walked farther, you could see two more rooms. One to the left, one to the right. A small salty smell came through as you walked, as if you were walking towards the shore.

---

@tatszico Outside Room 10
As you left your room, you could barely make out your right. The light in the hallway flickered every once in a while, but it was impossible to see more than ten meters in front of you. The light in front of your room was much brighter, but it still didn't give off enough light to see farther than your own rooms. You could barely make see two more buildings to the left and right of the path that you took. From behind, you hear a shout, as if someone was trying to get your attention.

@RedXCross Outside Room 7
As you leave your room, you see the same as the other man. Barely enough light to see what was going on in the hallway. Still, the other man was close enough for you to easily call him and see him.

Map

[drewccapp]

Room 16

Aedin's ears turned red with his embarrassment. Not only had he made a fool of himself by sending a terribly written message, but he also messed up by not even considering the fact that there may be a listening device somewhere. "Awww crap. Best. Day. Ever." He mumbled under his breath.

He cleared his throat and did a somewhat grandiose gesture with his arms and hands. As if he was showing off to an audience. He spun around the room scanning for cameras as he went. "Aight, is this a prank or something? Or is there some greater scheme behind this bagging and tagging?" He lightly patted his bandaged arm and winced in pain after he did.

Now that he thought of it this didn't seem like a King Street Wolves kind of act. Something was too game-showy about this. "I see we got food and water. We got something of a job. Is this some kind of sick reality show?" He didn't like being caged, but it didn't seem like his captors wanted to immediately kill him or anyone else here. He checked the screen of the phone and waited for the response.

[tatszico]

"Oh, shit..." Justin mumbled to himself as he stopped after a few steps forward from his room. In front of him was a blackness that could not be pierced with the miserable light that leaked from a bulb outside of his room. Every few seconds or so the lights overhead would flicker, but that did nothing but disorient the young man even further. His chest began to tighten as he suddenly felt as if the darkness was eating up all the oxygen within this damned place.

Justin forced himself to move forward, but ended up cursing to himself again when his knees started to buckle. There was no way he can steel himself against this terrifying darkness, no matter how courageous he may be before this insane kidnapping, or whatever the fuck that happened to him. So he slumped against the wall, back pressed against the cold concrete with gritted teeth. He forced himself to calm down, to slow his heartbeat and to sharpen his senses. If he was planning to get out of this alive, he would need to learn how to adapt to this hellhole and fast.

So with a clearer mind, he began to assess his situation. First of all, this is no ordinary kidnapping. The number one clue to this is the mysterious 'care' package he received, along with the sleek cellphone that held the eerie wake-up message. No ordinary abduction would go to these lengths, and that brings him to the realization of another mystery - if he's not being held as a hostage for ransom, or not to be sold in some twisted underground trafficking market, then why was he here? What was the point in all of this...this elaborateness? If they wanted to kill him, the would have already done so. Instead, they gave him a days worth of food, along with a damned syringe that is to be used with a set of unknown drugs. No, this is something much more than a kidnapping, and there is a reason why he was brought to this place. He could somehow feel the malicious intent seeping in the atmosphere as he came to a conclusion: someone is conducting this twisted orchestra from behind the shadows, and he knows that he is being watched. He is being kept alive for the reason that he is expected to do something...but what? He does not know.

Slowly, Justin released an anxious breath. Processing his situation seemed to calmed him somewhat, but his stomach is still leadened with dread. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out the newly-acquired cellphone and woke it from idle by going through it's options and menus to not only find any more clues but to find if there is an internal flashlight he could use. Suddenly though, a voice from behind him made him swivel around, his fists clenched so hard in a defensive stance that he could almost hear his muscles screaming from the sudden tension. The box fell gently to his feet, which he then quickly displaced behind him, as if guarding it.

"Hey! Does anybody know what the hell is going on?"

Though his body was ready to spring into a fight to the death, his voice remained clear as he responded. "Whoever the fuck you are, stay put." Then, a moment of silence as his eyes strained to focus on where the voice was coming from - a person, who had just came out from the door across from his. He kept his fists up, but his muscles relaxed just a bit.

"Shit. Sorry. Don't mean to be rude, but, like you, I also have no idea what the hell is happening. So I hope you don't mind the distance between us as we try to figure this out, yeah? If you're trying to kill me, then good luck because my coach says I got deadly agility and bone-breaking kicks. If you're not, then may I ask who you are? I'm uh, Justin by the way."

The young man politely cleared his throat, lightly shifting his weight between each legs in his Muay Thai stance.

[RedXCross]

Austin paused as Justin turned to him. His body took on an incredibly aggressive stance, despite the passivity to his tone. Austin could sympathize. Both of them had been thrown into something that seemed completely unusual. He had the right to be defensive of the situation. If he did have this “deadly strength and agility” he was boasting about, then it would make perfect sense for him to rely on those strengths in new, uncomfortable settings.

Austin made sure to take an extra step back and keep his hands open and visible. He didn’t want to do anything to make Justin believe Austin had anything but the kindest of intentions. Just from looking at him, Austin realized that he was acting pretty normally in comparison to the situation. The quickness to which he took this stance, the voice that blended a typical friendliness with poisonous aggression. So far, he seemed okay. If Austin was going to get any other information, this would probably be the place to do it.

“I promise; it is not my intention to hurt anyone. Nice to meet you, Justin,” he said softly, forming a smile on his lips, “I’m Austin. It’s the same for me. I have no idea how I got here. If you’re here too, maybe we can work together?”

Carefully Austin fished his new phone out of his pocket. His eyes hovered over the half-heart momentarily as the dark shadows flickered in and out of existence around the weak, fading light. This building had seen better days, that’s for sure. The lingering stiffness over his joints still bothered him, and there were still way too many variables surrounding the entire situation.

Who was his soul mate? That was still in the air. The old revolver nibbled at the back of his brain curiously as he watched the man.

Either way, being honest would be the best way of getting out of this, it seemed.

Unless Justin was masking ulterior motives. But his emotional stature didn’t give any hint that may suggest he was act. Which meant he was either a fantastic actor, or he was telling the truth.
Austin chose to trust the latter.

“Did you get one of these phones, too?” he asked, lighting up the screen and directing it towards Justin so that the other man could see.

“Did you get a box of other things? Like food and… stuff?”

Okay, the revolver could stay a secret for now. Broadcasting that he had a weapon would just make people edgy around him. He wasn’t about that life. For once, his survival had to take precedence over everything else.

He still had a thesis paper to write.

[Jinxer]

"Wish there was a torch in that damn box." Rhiannon shivered as she muttered to herself, arms crossed to try and hug some warmth into her body. The hall, impossibly, seemed colder and danker than 'her' room with little illuminated by the poor lighting. Across the hall she could barely make out another door and was tempted to knock on it but stopped just outside, too afraid to carry through.

"I'll stay quiet for a bit, I guess." She murmured and continued down the hall cautiously. Now that she had calmed down the pain from her wrist was making itself acutely known. The light was too poor to make out what had caused her injury but she had no recollection of it before here. All variety of fears had flooded her mind regarding the nature of her wound: a tracking agent or maybe a hallucinogen of some kind? She shook her head as if trying to free her mind of distracting thoughts.

Further down the hall Rhiannon came across two more doors and hesitated. She hadn't even tried to see if any of them were open, one might have even been the way out for all she knew. Somehow she was reluctant to risk anything that might make her situation worse and she could hear nothing from the outside world. There was no sound of traffic or people no matter how hard she listened so this strange place must have been in the middle of nowhere or sound-proofed; she was unsure which option was more disturbing.

Steeling her resolve, she pushed on but a strange scent pulled her up short. The smell of the detritus littering the floor, which she was becoming accustomed too, was broken up by a waft of salt. It was a smell that reminded her of being at the sea but more potent. Rhiannon moved so that she was in the shadow of the wall rather than the centre of the hall and inched on with her own weapon the water bottle in her hand.

[Teaistasty]

The bathroom door swung open easily into a hallway, and Tim thought he felt a bit better. There was a door directly across from him and the smell wasn't as bad in the hallway. No need to panic yet. Tim tried the door in front of him, but it was locked. This was still a dream, right?

Not a dream, whispered some dark corner of his mind. It didn't smell as bad now that he was out of the restroom, but the lighting was still dark and his shock was slowly turning over into panic. A light ache was starting in his head. Tim regularly had migraines at work, mostly from his own negativity, but he suspected this one wasn't work related. He went to pull at his tie, a nervous habit, but found he wasn't wearing one. Odd, but he still had his regular white button-down work shirt and black work pants on.

His wrist still ached, but he didn't bother checking the bandage yet. Instead, he glanced around, trying to feel out his options.

To his left there was an old dumb waiter, currently closed off by some metal, and to his right was a dark hallway. Tim heard some distant shouting, nothing panicked, but it made him want to travel the dark hallway all the less. Tim glanced back at the bathroom door, but couldn't bring himself to go back to the smell and the...
...the mess.

Tim remembered the phone. The one that had said Welcome back.
He had grabbed it before he left. And, ominous message or not, it would still help him see in the dark hallway. Suddenly, Tim heard footsteps. Light footsteps, not walking too fast, but not all that hesitant either. Someone was walking in his direction! Tim panicked and leapt behind the bathroom door to hide, leaving it open a crack to spy on whomever was coming. Maybe if they looked.. not ominous? Or maybe not dangerous? If they seemed like a normal human being maybe he would talk to them.

Trying to hold his breath against the stench, Tim waited. Whoever it was, they were sticking to the shadows and suddenly moving slowly. Was because of the stench? There is a dead body behind you, the voice in his head reminded him. Or maybe they were here to attack him.

Tim dared not glance back at the dead body behind him, but he suddenly found himself wondering it he should have grabbed the metal pipe..

[Darkwolfsoul010]

Irina gagged. As the putrid smell hit her nose, she keeled over and tried to keep whatever was in her stomach down. A thin line of sweat dripped down her forehead, onto her nose and down to the ground below. Closing her eyes tightly, Irina swallowed the lump in her throat and struggled to force her hands to stop trembling. Gathering all her strength, Irina looked up at what the smell was coming from.

The girls head was angled down, her brown hair was matted and tousled to cover her face. Her skin was pale, Irina could almost make out a dark vein that ran down the length of her arm. I have to help her she thought to herself, and managed to take a few steps towards the girl. It took a few seconds for her brain to understand what she was seeing. It was as if everything was blurry, and slowly coming into focus. The blood, the guts, everything came into view and this time Irina couldn’t hold back. After a moment of horror, Irina fell to her knees and retched across the floor. Her throat burned, her stomach was empty so bile was all that came up. For minutes, Irina stared at the ground, gagging and spitting as her body convulsed from the shock of it all.

Eventually Irina managed to steel herself. On shaky legs she stood and walked back over to her box. Irina grabbed the water bottle and drank a few sips, forcing the cool liquid down her throat. She put the water back into her box, dropped in the cassette tape she found earlier and shoved the entire box under the bed.

Grabbing the mattock once more, Irina tried to make her way out of the room again. She approached the door, not looking down at the girl before her, and looked from side to side. Irina couldn’t see very far down the dark hallway. She trusted her gut and quickly decided to go left. As she tried to step around the body, Irina’s foot got caught on the girl’s leg. She let out a yelp and kicked herself free. Irina gagged again, but turned towards the hall and didn’t look back. She couldn’t bear that again.

[Benzaiten]

Cleo stared at the three holes in her arm. This was insane. She shook her head and carefully put the bandage back around it. Better not think about it too much for now.

She looked around the room as though looking for an answer. There was only one way out of here and sitting in this room would not bring her any further. She gripped the hatchet tightly and got up. The girl decided to look through the rubbish in the room, just to be sure she wouldn't leave anything useful behind.

One she finished roaming through the dirty place, she went up to the door. No matter what was outside there, she had to go. Even if there were guards at her door shooting her right the second she attempted to step out. But there wouldn't be, would there? According to the text on her phone she could do anything she wants for just today. And right now she wants to leave this room.

So Cleo took a deep breath and opened the door. She stepped outside, her whole body on alert.

[OwO]

@drewccapp Room 16

The phone, unexpectedly following what you were saying, chimed once more with a text.

not a prank~ (シ_ _)シ sorry~ and a reality show? (シ_ _)シ sorry~ this is all real

Whatever was behind these texts seemed to dodge the middle question of whether or not it was a bigger scheme.

---

@Jinxer Outside of the Washroom

As you walked forwards in the shadow of the walls, you collided with some trash hidden by the black shroud of darkness. Though it produced a loud sound, it wasn't dangerous, nor as loud as the sound coming from wherever you were going. You heard a loud jump into some wooden object. Then, silence.

As you walked forwards, you noticed some things. First, there was a small metallic grey square in the wall opposite. On the wall to the right, a door. On the wall to the left, another door, but it appeared to not have a handle. Instead, it was a push/pull kind of deal. The closer you got to the door on the left, the saltier it would smell.

---

@Teaistasty Inside of the Washroom

The footsteps you heard were nothing compared to a loud and sudden bang. Besides that, everything was silent. The crack in the washroom door gave barely enough vision for anything. You could see up to the door on the other side, but other than that, you were unable to see anything.

---

@Darkwolfsoul010 Outside Room 9
Despite getting far from the body, the smell still stuck with you.

As you walked, you noticed that to the left and right of you, there were more hallways. In front, as you continued to walk, was the darkest out of the three. Though, you did manage to see through the darkness, even if what you saw was merely a silhouette. You saw one man with his heads with his hands raised beside his head, as if ready to attack. The other was in a much more relaxed stance, but the situation still appeared to be tense.

---

@KahleenCuthald Outside Room 14
As you open the door, it opened with a quiet and rusted screech. Nothing of interest was seen outside of the door, but you did manage to hear a scream coming from the right and in front.

---

@tatszico Outside Room 10 and 7

As you checked the settings for the phone, you noticed that there were no options available inside of it. It was just an empty screen. After closing the app, you managed to spy a glimpse at a small icon in the shape of a flashlight. That was probably what you looked for. Even so, the light of the phone would be extremely limited.

@tatszico&@RedXCross Outside Room 10 and 7

The sudden tenseness of your conflict was cut short by a yelp from behind. Your eyes couldn't pierce the entire darkness of the halls behind, but they could make out a figure holding some sort of old tool, like a pick, or a mattock.

---

Map

[Benzaiten]

A scream was the only thing of interest that Cleo could hear or see. In this case, hear. She turned to her left - a hallway as it seemed. To the front - a wall. To the right - another hallway and apparently kind of the direction where the scream had come from. She holds the hatchet high and tight. Ready to strike anyone down if needed. With slow and careful steps she walks along the wall down the right hallway.
The only thing encouraging her was the text. Do whatever you want. If that kidnapper of hers had any moral whatsoever, he would not "punish" her for anything he instructed her to do. Hopefully.

[drewccapp]

Room 16

Aedin scratched the back of his head with a big frown on his face. "Well gee whiz, not a prank and not a reality show that does me good. Well what in the heck is this?" He thought for a second before any response came through. "Y'know what don't even bother. I probably don't want to know anyways."

He looked at the previous texts. "Says that my first job is to borrow something from someone. I'm guessing there's more jobs to come, right?" At this point he was more talking to himself than anyone else, whether there was a response to his talking or not he didn't exactly care.

He grabbed the busted box cutter and the cloth and pocketed them. Then he hid the water bottle and last can among the garbage within the room. He then broke down the box and put it under the bed for the time being he figured there might be a need for it later. He then headed out the door as he spoke to the phone in an accusative tone. "So, what did you do to my arm?"

Outside of Room 16

Aedin looked up and down the hallway to see many other doors. Right across there was a room labeled Room ?? with faded text, the numbers were so far gone that he couldn't tell. As his gaze turned to the left after the door closed he saw a woman about his age. Holding a hatchet seemingly ready to strike at anything. She was only a couple steps away, so he took a few steps back with his hands -- phone in his left hand -- raised in front of him. "Whoa, hey! Careful now you could take an arm with that thing." The darkness was so bad that if he hadn't been operating by the light of the cell phone he would have not seen her unless he literally ran into her.

[tatszico]

For a moment, no sound came from between the two as Justin held his breath and tried to analyze the small object that the other man was holding. Sure enough, it was an identical phone to his. Though still understandably wary, the young man began to relax and let out a small breath of relief. He shifted away from his stance, returning to his usual posture as he gave the other man, Austin, an apologetic half smile.

"Yeah. Looks exactly like the damned one I have." Justin fished for his pockets, pulling out the small device. "Except mine has this little guy, and yours is obviously different." He pointed to the skull charm dangling from one of the corners of the phone. "Any idea what this means? I promise you, though, even if mine looks ominous, I absolutely have no idea what it's for so I hope you're not getting any wrong ideas about me. Even if I did threaten you just a bit. Sorry about that."

Justin gave a tired sigh, leaning back against the wall and flipped through the phone again. All of that adrenaline that flooded his veins now left him feeling tired and nerve-wracked. Still, he did his best to kept a cool head and slowly he began to regain his wits and forced himself to slow down and breath. "I also got the box that you mentioned," Justin said, tapping his foot casually to the thing at his feet. "It was also filled with food and...other stuff." The young man glanced up from his phone and eyed Austin with a peculiar, raised eyebrow, as if knowing that he too must have something that he didn't want to show. Justin already agreed to himself earlier to keep his syringe a secret until a situation calls for it. Hopefully the other man would not protest.

But as he played with his phone, Justin noticed a small icon that made him push away from the wall with the first good news of the night. Or day. He then realized he had know clue what time of the day it was and wondered how long he was actually stuck in here for.

Regardless, he flashed Austin a grinned, then turned towards the blackness that stood before the two men. "Let there be light," he said before touching the flashlight icon and a blinding flare emitted from the camera lights of the phone. Immediately on the screen, a warning blared that the app was consuming a lot of the phones power but Justin ignored it completely, because as soon as his eyes adjusted to the flash of bright light, he saw a girl with a giant mattock in her hands. The man immediately stepped back beside Austin, too stunned to do anything but give a frightened shout.